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I started with a SeaLife Reefmaster. I think it's an excellent entry level camera and has lots of upgrades to grow with you as you get more into photography.
I started with a SeaLife Reefmaster. I think it's an excellent entry level camera and has lots of upgrades to grow with you as you get more into photography.
sealife was my first camea as well and still is. i started with a sealife DC200 which promtly broke. it was replaced by the company with a DC250 (i think) which broke as well. that one was then replaced by the company with a DC310. now, i cant say enough for their fast customer service, they are great there. but, the cameras dont seem to be the best. mine does take good pics, easy to use, and seems to be working great now. but, it is my third one. i would go with something else...
I agree with what's already been said - we have the Sealife digital Reefmaster with external strobe; it's been a great starter camera (check out the gallery link in my signature if you want to see examples). For what we could afford at the time, it was great - I'd recommend it as a first step. But we're definitely starting to outgrow it now.
One word of caution: it doesn't retain settings when you change the batteries. This tripped us up on a few dives when we started out (ie, left it on "land" mode!)
I just bought a SL520 Reefmaster CL for $75, and so far I like it. It takes better pics than my old Suprema Sport, and has a better housing and is smaller. One thing I dont like about it which my old cam did was some external button to turn on/off the cam, and on/off the flash. The new one is always on, flash always on. Here are some pics I took with it.
I had the dc310 for 2 days and took it back, was very dissapointed in the quality even at the 3 meg pixel.
You can find the same 3 meg camera at Wallmart for $125 (last time I checked) branded under the Vivatar name. Just my opinion, but its a cheap low feature camera in a decent rubber grip housing.
Not worth the money they're charging for the whole package, compared to what you can buy for an Olympus XXX and PT housing, or the way I went, was a Nikon 4300 and the fantasee housing. That model Nikon is about $320 from www.dbuys.com, and a Fantasea pro housing is $174 at Leisurepro. PLUS it has rechargeable Ni-mH batteries instead of AA's which you'll eat up in no time.
So for a little over $500, you've got a top notch fully featured surface camera, great macro lens for close-ups, as well as a great point and shoot underwater housing for about the same money you'll be dropping on the DC310 kit.
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